The New York Jets announced today that they have agreed in principle on a trade with the Denver Broncos for quarterback Tim Tebow.
Tebow, whose stardom rose to national levels this past season as he led the Denver Broncos to nine wins and a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, was expected to be traded by the Broncos to either the Jets or the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jaguars spokesman Dan Edwards responded this morning.
“We have nothing to report and we don’t comment on speculation,” said Edwards, senior vice president of communications and media.
Daily Record news WJXT Channel 4 had been reporting that a source told its sister station in Orlando that Tebow would be traded today.
Tebow lost his starting job this week when the Broncos signed former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.
Tebow has roots in Jacksonville and was high-profile last week when he opened his first “Timmy’s Playroom,” part of his Tim Tebow Foundation, at the Dreams Come True nonprofit.
Several national reports said the Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers were in the running for Tebow, but a source informed the Orlando station, WKMG, Tuesday night that the trade talks were exclusively down to the Jets or Jaguars.
WJXT’s reported that the source told WKMG that Tebow prefers playing time over a return to his hometown.
Sporting News had reported that if Tebow is on the trading block, the Jaguars and Jets are reportedly “set to move quickly to make a deal for him.”
The Jaguars drafted quarterback Blaine Gabbert in the first round last season and recently signed former Miami Dolphins starter Chad Henne in free agency as a backup.
In an interview March 13 with the Daily Record, new Jaguars President Mark Lamping addressed a question about Tebow.
Asked if he was interested in Tebow if Manning took the job in Denver, Lamping deferred to Jaguars General Manager Gene Smith and head coach Mike Mularkey.
“I am glad we’ve got smart people like Gene Smith and Coach Mularkey that’ll weigh in on what to do there,” Lamping said.
Asked his opinion, Lamping responded: “Whatever helps the team be in a position to give our fans what they want.”
New Jaguars owner Shahid Khan shared his views about Tebow with reporters in Jacksonville soon after he bought the team in January from former owner Wayne Weaver and his partners.
Here is an excerpt from a Daily Record interview with Khan on Jan. 30:
Would you have drafted University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow?
Yes. This is an issue, by strange coincidence, I was involved in with Wayne a couple of years ago. I have a very clear bottom-line answer. Absolutely I would have.
Two years ago, I was engaged with the St. Louis Rams and they had the No. 1 draft pick. I talked to Wayne during that time and had shared with him, ‘you should be drafting him’ and I gave him my case for that, which was an athlete like Tim Tebow from Jacksonville comes once a generation. He is going to really connect the Jaguars to Jacksonville and they should do it.
Wayne gave me very logical, very clinical answers on reasons why he wouldn’t do it. I went back to the Rams, their player personnel folks, I said, you’ve got to tell me, if you were Jacksonville, would you be drafting Tim Tebow? They said absolutely not. It was like they were reading from the same script Wayne had read from.
I said, there comes a time where emotion trumps rationality and this, if I was an owner, would be one of those moments for me.
It is a very divisive, polarizing kind of an issue, Tim Tebow.
It’s amazing, I was in Denver that game with San Diego when they were way behind and they finally put him in. I was there with the owners. I saw the whole drama and how the stadium changed and the great success he had.
He could have gone down in flames and I could be sitting here telling you I would have drafted him.
I don’t want it to come off as just a callous remark about second guessing. It’s not that at all.
Where will you be on NFL Draft day? New York?
I don’t want to be in the city (New York City). This is very, very important. I’ll be here. You have to have the game plan pretty much planned out. Things never go exactly to plan.
Will you make any calls?
Certainly I have a viewpoint. I don’t want to get on Tebow too much, but that would have been a once-in-a-generation call for me.
As a privilege as an owner, once in a lifetime you do that. That’s the exception. As a rule, you’ve got to get the information on the table and most of the time, from what I have seen in business, the right decision emerges. Very rarely, it doesn’t.
Any once-in-a-generation players in this year’s draft?
Not that I know of.